Día de los Muertos celebrates the life of the deceased while easing the grief of the living

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When his father died about two decades ago, Dr. Mathew Sandoval built a colorful altar in his honor and decorated it with flowers, candles and personal items. 坛上, part of the ancient Día de los Muertos tradition, helped the then-21-year-old cope with grief.

“从本质上来说, it gave me tools with which to deal with this loss,”桑多瓦尔说, a cultural scholar in Arizona. “这非常有影响力."

The Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos, 或者是亡灵节, is a time for people to remember those who have departed. 每个11月. 1-2, the holiday celebrates their lives with ofrendas, 或祭坛, 滑稽的骨架, 音乐, dance and plenty of sweets and food. And although the tradition is filled with joy, it also comes with the mental anguish of confronting death.

"That's the duality of Día de los Muertos,”桑多瓦尔说, 他在巴雷特教书, The Honors College at Arizona State University in Phoenix. "That's what makes some people hesitant about it or makes people feel like it might be morbid, 因为同时, you have death and life situated right next to each other. You have grief situated right next to laughter; you have sadness situated right next to joy. We're not used to those things being so close together – it's either sad or it's joyful."

Día de los Muertos celebrations have become omnipresent in mass media in the United States as Hispanic and Latino communities have grown, 桑多瓦尔说. More than half of the nearly 64 million Hispanic people in the U.S. are of Mexican heritage, according to 2022 census data.

米歇尔·萨斯博士, a mental health clinician at 德州 Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, said cultural traditions like Día de los Muertos can help anyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, with the grieving process after the death of a loved one.

"Sometimes people are not taught a healthy way of grieving, so they grieve the best way they can,她说. "When other family members or other people see that, they're not sure how to help."

Grief can have various health implications. 研究 has linked grief to disrupted sleep, 心的问题, and changes in the immune system and blood pressure.

Día de los Muertos is not meant to replace grief, 萨斯博士说. 而, it can offer a healthy way "to express your feelings and let other people know it's OK to still be sad and upset, to cry and still be happy for those memories of people who have passed on."

The death of a loved one can elicit overwhelming feelings of loss, particularly for children who might not understand the concept of death and may be confused when first exposed to Día de los Muertos, 萨斯博士说. When explaining the celebration, it's a good idea to use concrete language that is age-appropriate. 成年人, 例如, should say the holiday remembers people who have died instead of phrasing it as people who are no longer with us, 她说.

"We want to make sure to reassure and comfort them, identify their fears and misconceptions, and just really normalize the grieving process and the emotions that come with it,萨恩斯说.

The celebration also is an opportunity to ease fears about death for adults, 她说. "It's just that part of life that we're all going to have to go through, and the more we talk about it, the more we normalize it, the more we take that fear away from people."

在墨西哥, where the celebration is deeply rooted in pre-Hispanic rituals among Indigenous people fused with Christian customs after the arrival of Spaniards, Día de los Muertos is part of childhood. Mexicans "have a strong tradition that develops from a very early age,”桑多瓦尔说, who has done extensive research on the celebration. During the festivities, children munch on candy skulls that are often adorned with their names.

Children learn that death is a part of life, 他说. "It's not something that (adults) shield kids from. It's something that they kind of invite them into thinking about, that there's a broader sense of life."

Although grief is a major component of Día de los Muertos, 桑多瓦尔说, celebrating it gives people a chance to revisit happier times with the departed. Some traditional Indigenous societies believe that the spirits of the dead return during the celebration to interact with the living in some form, 他说. "Not everybody believes that, 但至少, it's an opportunity to remember those who we've loved."

People gather around altars or at gravesites to share memorable – even funny – stories about those who have died. It may be sad in an existential sense because relatives and friends are gone, 桑多瓦尔说, but it's joyful because the deceased are being remembered for traits people loved about them.

萨斯博士说 there is no right or wrong way to celebrate Día de los Muertos, which also is celebrated in other Latin American countries. Someone who is grieving can turn to a local community celebration for support, 她说.

"You don't have to have an altar like other people have in their homes,萨恩斯说. "You should do what is best for you in your healing process."